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Apple and John Deere Shareholder Resolutions Demand They Explain Their Bad Repair Policies - iFixit:
Apple and John Deere, primary antagonists of the Right to Repair movement, may soon have to explain their domineering repair programs to one of their most demanding audiences: their shareholders.
U.S. PIRG, working with its affiliated socially responsible mutual fund company, Green Century Funds, has filed shareholder resolutions with both Apple and John Deere, asking them to account for “anti-competitive repair policies." Both resolutions admonish the companies for fighting independent repair and ignoring the broad political shift toward Right to Repair laws.
Touch ID stops working if you replace the fingerprint sensor on your iPhone. This used to brick iPhones; now it’s just the sad reality of iPhone repair.
Green Century’s Apple resolution says that the company “risks losing its reputation as a climate leader if it does not cease its anti-repair practices.” Noting that internet-connected devices will account for 14% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, Green Century’s resolution demands the company reverse course to “mitigate regulatory and reputational risks and bolster the company's ambitious climate commitments.”
[...] The John Deere resolution calls out the company’s broken promise to make crucial repair software available to farmers. "Company representatives are quick to point out that less than 2% of all repairs require a software update," Green Capital Funds notes. "However, Deere does not disclose what percentage of the repair sales the 2% represents."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @09:05PM
It may just be an excuse but its an excuse that is being actively exploited by the EPA in litigation against individuals who build race cars. Not exactly right to repair, but rather right to modify. In the last few years the EPA has started to enforce rules that basically say any car with a VIN number or any engine that was in a car with a VIN cannot be modified in any way (since any performance modifications will change its emissions), regardless of their intended use as race-only vehicles.
The EPA is going after racers now but I guarantee it wont stop there. What if I have an old car from the 90's and the computer dies on it. The manufacturer doesn't make the computer anymore and say for sake of argument I can't find one at the local junk yard. It would be easy to find an aftermarket computer and replace the broken one but that is illegal according to the EPA. Even if you were to test the car and ensure its emissions are fine, the very act of replacing a part of the emission system with an aftermarket part is illegal as far as the EPA is concerned. And thats how this game goes. They shoehorn their way in with an angle not many people will fight (aftermarket racing components) and slowly metastasize to adjacent areas that will eventually effect you and me.
This was a long way of saying that you can ignore objections that seem arbitrary at your own peril. We need broad-scope right to repair laws or we will be doomed to subservience and a disposable lifestyle.